THE ART & BEAUTY OF BODY ILLUSIONS NOW

Where do illusions begin? In the body? In the mind? Today, we are featuring 3 artists who create illusions by painting human bodies, transforming them into animals, landscapes, and other non-human forms. They are magical! They are extraordinary. Check them out below.

NATALIE FLETCHER

Natalie Fletcher, a Texan artist and photographer, tripped over the idea of bodypainting when she was searching for work after graduation from art school. She experimented with painting skin and found that she loved the medium.

Fletcher also found that she loved interacting with her models.

They began, sometimes as strangers, sometimes as friends, and transformed under Fletcher’s deft hand, into a myriad of illusions, ranging from abstract Pop Art constructs to invisible subjects that disappear into their surroundings á la the Invisible Man Liu Bolin.

Her illusions are so compelling that Fletcher won “Skin Wars,” a body painting reality competition, hosted by Rebecca Romijn, that premiered on Game Show Network.  

Fletcher’s current series in the works, “100 Bodies Across America,“ an across the country road trip body art project is an epic undertaking. Look for the resulting book coming soon.

CRAIG TRACY

Craig Tracy became bored with his job as an illustrator, so he reinvented himself as an illusionist, using bodies as a canvas for his trompe ‘oeils.

While he expanded his repertoire to include murals and t-shirt designs, his most magical medium is body painting, turning humans into almost anything.

See if you can find where the human body begins and ends in Tracy’s images. Not so easy!